About .mnu files

Comment lines

title and iftitle

Writing .mnu fles

%MFOLDER%, $NAME$ and $HOME$ Keywords

When specifying a path in .mnu file, you can use the %MFOLDER% variable which will be set to the parent's menu folder (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU) or you can use $HOME$ which will be set to the .mnu path. 

For example, the following are all equivalent if the .mnu file is located in the \_ISO\LINUX\Linux folder:

• /_ISO/LINUX/Linux/Ubuntu.iso
• %MFOLDER%/Linux/Ubuntu.iso
• $HOME$/Ubuntu.iso

I recommend you use $HOME$ whenever possible.

If the file name contains spaces such as Ubuntu x86.iso, then precede each space with a \ character - e.g. $HOME$/Ubuntu\ x86.iso

$NAME$ is the filename (without extension) of the .mnu or .txt file that it is used in. The filename can contain spaces. (v1.67+)

e.g. You have two files with identical filenames (.mnu and .iso):

• \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU\Ubuntu.iso
• \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU\Ubuntu.mnu

iftitle [if exist $HOME$/$NAME$.ISO] Ubuntu \n Boot from $NAME$.ISO
set ISO=$HOME$/$NAME$.ISO
(more grub4dos lines here)...
boot

You should name the payload file exactly the same as the .mnu file and so you do not need to modify the text inside the .mnu file. You can then copy or move both files to any standard menu folder or download a later version of the ISO and simply rename the .mnu file.

Note that because we use iftitle, if you delete the Ubuntu.iso file, then the menu entry will not appear in the menu. If you add Ubuntu.iso back again, then it will be listed in the menu again.

Tip: /%grub%/ is used as the path to the \_ISO\e2b\grub folder, which is where most grub4dos batch files and utilities are located.

Tip: if a .mnu menu entry is not automatically numbered by grub4dos and you cannot select it with the UP/DOWN cursor keys (but can select it using RIGHT/LEFT cursor keys), simply add 'boot' as the last line of the menu.

Using iftitle in .mnu files

The expression inside the square brackets  [expr] must equate to TRUE for the menu to be displayed.

Any variable inside the square brackets must already exist.

All menu entries with iftitle statements are evaluated first by grub4dos, after that, each menu entry is listed in the menu.

You can use iftitle in .mnu and .txt files.

For instance, suppose we only want to display an Ubuntu 64-bit ISO if the system's CPU is a 64-bit CPU

We could place the following line in our \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (which is executed at an early stage):

checkrange 2,3 is64bit && set BIT64=1

This will set the variable BIT64 to the value of 1 if the CPU is a 64-bit CPU.

Now we can use the BIT64 variable in a .mnu or .txt file:

iftitle [if exist BIT64] Ubuntu x64\n
/%grub%/qrun.g4b $HOME%/Ubuntu64.iso
boot

To use a variable it must be enlosed in % signs, so we could instead write:

iftitle [if "%BIT64%"=="1"] Ubuntu x64\n
/%grub%/qrun.g4b $HOME%/Ubuntu64.iso
boot

Note that we enclose the BIT64 variable in double-quotes (") - this is because if BIT64 was not defined, if %BIT64%==1  would resolve to if ==1 which is an invalid expression and cause an error. So by using "%BIT64%" the expression resolves to if ""=="1" which has correct syntax. We could also use  if exist BIT64 to test for the existence of the BIT64 variable.

The \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file contains examples of other variables you can use, e.g. MYMEMMB for the size of memory in MB, or MYDISKGB for the size of the USB boot disk in GB, GB4 if there is more than 4GB of memory, etc.

$$STRxxxx Keywords

If you see these $$STR Keywords used in an E2B .mnu file or .txt file, they will be replaced by the equivalent text from a STRINGS.txt language file (e.g. using text inside the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG\STRINGS.txt file if English is the selected language).

If you are creating your own .mnu or .txt files, just substitute ordinary text in-place of the Keywords

e.g.

iftitle [if "%GFX%"==""] $$STRm005

can be changed to:

iftitle [if "%GFX%"==""] This is the menu entry\nThis is the help text below the menu box

Note: Hotkeys do not work in a GFX Boot menu, so often there will be two almost identical menu entries in an E2B .mnu file, one with a hotkey and one without a hotkey in the 'iftitle' line.. The [if "%GFX%"==""] portion means 'if a GFX boot menu is not being used' - so the menu entry will not be displayed if the user has configured E2B to load a GFX Boot 'message' menu file instead of an ordinary wallpaper bitmap file. You can omit this portion and just use title This is a menu entry\n Help text if you don't want to check for GFX Boot menus.

Note that because hotkeys don't work in GFX Boot menus, do not define a hotkey in your .mnu or .txt files if you want to use GFX Boot menus.

Add a non-persistent menu entry to a persistent .mnu file

title Boot directly from linux myiso.iso\nHERE IS MY HELP TEXT
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b   $HOME$/myiso.iso
boot

If you want to be able to delete the large .ISO file, but leave the .mnu file on the USB drive in case you want to restore it later, you will need to use iftitle so that the menu entry is only seen when the .iso file is present:

iftitle [if exist $HOME$/myiso.iso] Boot directly from myiso.iso\nHERE IS MY HELP TEXT
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b   $HOME$/myiso.iso
boot

QRUN.g4b is the grub4dos batch file which is responsible for booting a payload file according to it's file extension.

If you want a menu entry to run a payload which is in a different folder, then specify the complete path, e.g.  

.mnu file = \_ISO\MAINMENU\MyIso.mnu so we get an entry in the Main Menu:

iftitle [if exist/_ISO/WIN/myiso.iso] Boot directly from myiso.iso\nRun an ISO in a different folder
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b   /_ISO/WIN/myiso.iso
boot

Override the file extension

Normally, the file extension of a file determines how E2B will run it. There may be some circumstances where you want to have the same .ISO file (for example) but run it in two different ways. For instance, if your USB drive is a Zalman or IODD drive and you need to keep the .iso file extension on all files so that the drive can find them.

To do this create a .mnu file with the following format

fred.mnu

title HERE IS MY TITLE\nHERE IS MY HELP TEXT
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b  FORCE.isoPE  $HOME$/myiso.iso
boot

This will run MYISO.ISO as if it had a file extension of .ISOPE.

Here is another example of how to run the same .imgPTN file in two different ways - (place the .mnu file and the .imgPTN file in a MNU 3rd-level sub-folder)

clonezilla.mnu

Auto-run .imgPTN files

Normally, when you select a .imgPTN file (of any type), E2B will display some information about the file and then prompt the user to ask if it is OK to switch partitions. This can be suppressed for .imgPTN files by adding "AUTO" to the file extension, e.g. .imgPTNAUTO, however we can also use the AUTOCSM variable in a .mnu file as follows:

clonezilla_auto.mnu

If you don't want the clonezilla .imgPTNLBA23 file to be listed in the menu as well as the .mnu file entry, place both the image file and the .mnu in a subfolder (e.g. move it from \_ISO\BACKUP to \_ISO\BACKUP\MNU or \_ISO\BACKUP\ANYNAME).

Tip: If you add 'set AUTOCSM=1' to your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file, then the .imgPTN user prompt text will be suppressed for all .imgPTN-family files.

Calling other bootloaders from a .mnu file

If you are using a .mnu file, you may need to 'tidy up' the BIOS environment before you load your new payload.

In particular, if your menu has an animation, you should use these lines as the first lines in your menu:

E2B already does this for you in most cases, but not if you use your own .mnu file.

If you are booting to another payload which uses the BIOS (e.g. DOS, grub4dos, syslinux, grub2 MBR, etc.) you may need to add these lines to prevent strange memory corruption issues.

Recommended for Easy2Boot (fastest flash drive!)
SanDisk Extreme SDCZ880-128G-G46

130+ Tutorials on USB booting.

Fastest USB 3!
See Blog post